Our First Day...

Wow was it HOT!!
It was 93 degrees outside today... and outside seemed cool. There is something about 90+ degrees plus about 2000 hot, sweaty, stinky bodies in a building with no air conditioning... it makes for an interesting learning environment.

First hour took a lot of time simply going over the rules and procedures... so much so that we got almost nothing else done. That stinks. The whole UbD thing is now going to be at least 3/4 of a day behind. I suppose German 3 will catch up tomorrow when the seniors all leave for senior class meetings.

Then German 1 was fantastic... it always makes me a bit off my game when I don't have German 1 first hour... but I think it was nice. And then some kids needed more copies of the homework and one of the "cool girls" came to get her homework and said that she is really excited about German and will look forward to it every day. I told her I look forward to it too. That is awesome. I can't wait to get those letters... they should be a good "pick-me-up"... and a good reminder of what good it does to truly be excited and share that with the kids.

So about halfway through German 3 (as everyone was looking really blah), I decided to just pull out the same discussions I had with German 1 and 2. It was like turning on a light. The kids were laughing and interested again. Reminder to self: keep up that excitement... nobody is ever too old for it and they are in your class to hear that and share in it. JUST DO IT! It will never seem silly or old.

Final note: I had so many students stop and talk with me today... even if they didn't have me until next semester. It was so nice. Then one student stopped me in the hall saying how sad he was that he didn't have German this year because he "wasn't supposed to have it last year and" he "didn't know how much he would enjoy it" so he hadn't signed up for it (He took German 1 in the spring). So it is nowhere on his schedule... but he promised "sincerely" that he would be in my class for a full year next year!! He was so honest and sad and excited... and said he would surely will still do German club. I'm so glad.

All in all it was good. I need to readjust some planning... but it was good.